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Question: How would you compare your experience teaching an honors class with that of teaching a non-honors class? Would you recommend the experience to your colleagues, and if so why?
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Dr. Paris Svoronos, Chair, CHEMISTRY |
The Chemistry Department was one of the first departments that started offering Honors classes in the Spring 2000 semester. Since that time the program has succeeded in bringing together students in “unofficial” learning communities that also include Mathematics, Biology and Physics classes. More important is the fact that students have involved themselves with research opportunities both at Queensborough and outside institutions, such as Queens College, the College of Staten Island, St. John’s University, The Food and Drug Administration and Mount Sinai Medical Center.
As a direct result of this involvement honors students have made both oral (power point) and poster presentations of their own research findings at local, regional and national meetings of the American Chemical society. Our own students have traveled to Washington, D.C and Anaheim, CA to national meetings as well as other regional meetings at Princeton University, Rutgers University and the University of Pennsylvania. They have also participated at the undergraduate research symposia that were held at Fordham University, Pace University, Hofstra University, Long Island University-Brooklyn and Stony Brook. In 2000 the Queensborough presentations represented only 3% of the total number made at the Undergraduate Research Symposium- New York section. In 2005 this number rose to 40.3% with the rest going to four-year college students who are generally juniors and seniors, while ours are freshmen and sophomores.
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Dr. Sasan Karimi, Associate Professor, Chemistry |
I have been conducting research with students since I arrived at Queensborough 7 years ago. Most of the projects are laboratory based and are conducted at Queens College due to insufficient research space and facilities at Queensborough. The projects involve the synthesis of several tricyclic sesquiterpenoid natural products (e.g. sativene, longifolene, and ylangene) and the preparation and reaction of chiral oxycarbanions. My experience with students who do research has been very fruitful. The results of some of the works have already been published in peer reviewed journals including the names of students and faculty who were involved in the projects.
Most of the students that I engaged in doing research are those who have completed their freshman chemistry and are taking organic chemistry I. They are introduced to the concepts of organic chemistry in lecture, and the various lab techniques in the laboratory portion of the course. When involved in research, students persist on getting results and invest a lot of time in achieving them. After graduating from Queensborough, many will transfer to Queens College or other CUNY or SUNY campuses or institutions in the tri-state area. It is a pleasure mentoring these students.
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Dr. Moni Chauhan, Assistant Professor, Chemistry |
Teaching an Honors Class is Fascinating
Every semester I look forward to teaching the General Chemistry II Honors section and the reason for that is the enthusiasm and motivation of students that I see in this class to show their best performance. This semester’s students are eager to do more and more problem solving even beyond their recommended text book so that they score better than the others. This brings in a lot of competition and effort among them. Like every semester these students will be making 10-15 minute long oral presentations on the applications of the topics covered in this course.
I have also introduced and piloted the concept of writing a short paper on the topic of their presentation in a scientific and stepwise manner. I believe in making chemical science writing intensive, in order to develop the student’s skills in writing, disseminating and articulating the scientific experimental process. Students also write lab reports in detail expressing their observations and conclusions of the experiments done in the honors General Chemistry II lab. There is a one to one interaction with the students which helps me pick some of them to do original research with me which results in publications in peer reviewed journals and presentations at national and international conferences. Overall teaching an Honors class is always a rewarding and gratifying experience for me.
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Dr. Daqing Gao, Assistant Professor, Chemistry |
Our general chemistry honors class is unique. It keeps me having fire on teaching. I would like to share my experience of teaching an honors class at QCC with my colleagues. Over the past year, I have been teaching honors general chemistry II CH-152 lecture and lab class. This is a class of about 15 students. The class size enables me to quickly become familiar with every student and get to know everybody’s strengths and weaknesses. Thus, my subsequent instructions are tailored to meet these students’ unique needs.
First, I use power-point presentations to give clear and concise instructions to the important concepts, facts and principles. The power-point slides also incorporate standard examples to solve problems by using the newly obtained knowledge. I also spend a large amount of class time with students to do end-of-chapter exercises and practices. “Challenging and motivating students” mostly takes place at this time. I feel very excited during many warm discussions and problem-solving sessions. Such interactive activities always make students alert and concentrated. Students often get a sense of fulfillment after class, as I do.
Second, general chemistry II covers thermodynamics, chemical kinetics, chemical equilibria, acid-base and electrochemistry. These materials are highly related to each other. To demonstrate the connections, I repeatedly write down all the major concepts and equations that have been covered on the chalkboard from scratch without looking at any notes or text, making students appreciate the logic of science. This can help students distinguish between scientific deductions and routine memorizations in their learning process and eventually help them find their own ways of effective learning.
Third, I continue to carry on the tradition of this honors class by asking each student to give a power-point presentation of a topic that is related to chemistry. In addition, I also introduce students to different curve-fitting techniques to plot numerical data by using the spreadsheet program Excel.
Fourth, students have an opportunity in my honors class to perform several new and interesting experiments adopted from recent publications. To help students finish these experiments, I ask them to follow the major steps of the scientific methodology including planning a procedure, making observations, drawing conclusions and reporting the results. This goes far beyond the traditional “cookbook” approach and truly helps students develop their critical thinking abilities.
And last, I am able to convince some students from my honors class to get involved in original research work, and help them present and publish their discoveries. Indeed, some of them have demonstrated critical faculties, willingness and diligence to excel in all aspects as a college student. It is definitely a pride and joy to see them grow intellectually.
In all, the honors class has a much higher standard than the usual courses. I have been trying to make it enjoyable and rewarding, however, to everybody. It is demanding, but not formidable. Moreover, the honors scholars program acts as an effective vehicle to build the students’ confidence at this early stage in their pursuits of higher education.
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Dr. David Sarno, Assistant Professor, Chemistry |
What Makes it an “Honors” Class?
In my second year as a faculty member in the QCC Chemistry Department, I've been given the opportunity to teach the Honors Lab section for General Chemistry I (CH-151). As expected, the students are all dedicated and enthusiastic, and working with them every week is much fun. The experiments are the same for all sections of this course, so we have devised two ways to set it apart and make it worth the “Honors” title. The Chemistry Department hosts a monthly seminar in which invited speakers from other colleges and universities present their research. Our students attend these seminars, which have covered a variety of topics such as environmental remediation, advances in nanochemistry, and the NYC water supply. They must then prepare summaries of the presentations that include additional information on the topic, usually obtained from the speaker’s website. The goal of these assignments is not only for the students to improve their writing and note-taking skills, but also to expose them to cutting-edge research that is often happening right in their own neighborhood. There is no doubt that these experiences have prompted many of our own students to pursue research projects with faculty mentors from QCC.
The second assignment is a “Science and Society” project. Scientific discoveries and their implications have become central to several public debates, especially in the biochemical sciences (e.g. stem cell research and genetic engineering). Scientific literacy is absolutely essential if one is to make informed decisions regarding complex issues. Our Honors students are identifying a topic of interest and researching it in the popular literature (newspapers, magazines, internet, etc.). By understanding the core of the controversy from technical and non-technical viewpoints, they can then form an educated opinion on the subject. This project is a new edition to Honors CH-151 and we are very excited to see the results of the student’s investigations.
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Dr. Soraya Svoronos, Chemistry |
I AM GLAD TO GET THE CHANCE to teach the honors CH-120 section again this semester. This is the second time I am teaching it but also the first composed of purely honors students. The main advantage that comes to mind is the smaller section. However it is a unique experience to teach truly “ thirsty” kids who have had a good background in Math and the right attitude to be in the challenging class. I expect many of them to major in science despite the fact that their original plan was to take this course and fulfill their science requirement. Some accompanied other faculty to the Nichols Award ceremony and raved about the experience of shaking hands with the 2000 Nobel laureate in chemistry. My first experience running a hybrid honors CH-120 was equally satisfying. The “legitimate” honors students were capable of bringing along the non-honors ones and slowly created a different atmosphere. Although scared at the beginning, those kids rose to the accasion and performed equally well as indicated by their high American Chemical Society assessment test results.
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Dr. Jun Shin, Chemistry |
“Why They Are in the Honors Class?”
Although I have had chances to work with honors students in research in the past, this is my first semester to encounter them in the class (both in CH-152 lab and CH-121 lab). My first impression is that these students know, communicate and care about each other very well, often (such as in CH-152) because this is not the first class they have been together. At the same time the CH-121 students are willing to listen, pay attention and trust the judgment of the instructor. They do not compete for a better grade but instead help each other to improve their knowledge and ability in chemistry and their future. As a result better grades become a consequence of this effort. The honors students are not only proven to have academic ability but are also equipped with interest in the sciences which will lead them to another level.
“Thinking” is very important in science because all the scientific research results begin with an “idea” which involves “thinking”. In the laboratory courses, many students just follow the procedure described in the lab manual but this is not research. To inspire the students I use the concept of cooking.
If you are cooking by following a recipe then you can be a good assistant cook but not a good cook. To be a good cook, you have to think continuously why pre-treating a type of food, why adding an ingredient at a given time, why heating for a specified period are significant. Good scientists are the same. They always think why, why, and why. I believe that the honors students are the ones who think “why” in the laboratory, and that is what makes them different from the “regular” class students. This is exactly why they are in the honor class.
COMMENTS BY HONORS STUDENTS
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